Final Hurdle
by Lexie-Rae
Summary: Peyton needs some advice from the one person she knows will always give her the blunt honest truth. Nathan/Peyton set in Series 6.


_This is just a little piece that came to me when I was getting all nostalgic about Nathan and Peyton, because in my humble little opinion, we didn't see enough of these two together especially in the post school years. _

_... _

Peyton lingered by the bleachers, watching as Nathan played against one of his students, Quentin she thought he was called. Nathan was as good as ever, but somehow it seemed that he wanted it even more now. She could appreciate that; he'd had it in the grasp of his hand, touching distance, and then some idiot had thrown him through a pane of glass and it had all been lost in the whisper of a moment.

She understood. She'd lost her dream once too, with the simple utterance of the word 'someday'. After moping around in LA for a while – much as Nathan had moped in Tree Hill following his accident – Peyton had painstakingly packed up her life and come home to try and win Lucas back. And after a lot of heartache, they were finally back together. They were almost there, at the final hurdle; a wedding and a happily ever after. But there was one last thing she had to do before that final hurdle.

"Hey, Hotshot!" She called and strode towards the two guys playing, a light smirk across her face. The feeling of finding him in the gym playing ball was so familiar, nostalgic and safe.

Nathan glanced up and chuckled, losing him his challenge against Quentin, "Sawyer, what are you doing here?"

She shrugged and swept some of her hair back from her face, "Call me crazy, but I need some advice from you."

"Lady, you're crazy." Quentin offered behind a laugh and Nathan slapped him playfully on the arm.

"Go wash up," Nathan advised, pushing Q towards the locker room.

Nathan nodded once to Peyton and she smiled, knowing that he got it. Once Quentin disappeared after muttering things about being whipped by women Nathan turned his full attention to his friend, "So, this can only be about my brother."

Peyton arched her brow at his intuition, "Of course it is."

Nathan sighed a little over the confirmation, his head bowed towards the basketball he'd swept up from the rack and his brow knitted. "So he took you off to Vegas? That much I got from Hales,"

"Right." Peyton nodded and sank down onto a seat in the stands. She squinted up at him as he stood in front of her, spinning the ball skillfully between his fingertips, "Do you remember when we first got together, back in Sophomore year?"

"Wait, me and you?" Nathan frowned and thought for a moment, "I have no idea where this is going but yeah, sure I do. You were wearing your cheerleading outfit...until I took it off with my teeth."

Peyton rolled her eyes, "Reel it in. Do you remember what you said to me? We were at Bevin's party, sat on the edge of her pool and you were trying to kiss me,"

"Duh, I'd been trying to kiss you for _weeks_." Nathan grinned, "You were such a prude!"

"I was not! You were such a _player_." Peyton corrected. "That's what took me so much convincing. We were dipping our feet, trying to avoid the beer cans that Tim had thrown into the water earlier and I wanted to kiss you as well – stop smirking like that – but I couldn't because I didn't believe that you would want me over every other girl at that party."

"Peyton, I told you then and I'll say it again now, you were the most beautiful girl at that party." Nathan shook his head. "What's this all about?"

"You promised me that night that you would never lie to me." Peyton said.

He nodded, "Yeah I did."

"And to your credit, you've always been painfully honest with me." Peyton laughed lightly.

"Hey, that works two ways." Nathan pointed out.

Peyton nodded slowly, "I'll let you have that. But I'm calling that promise in, I need you to be completely honest with me."

Nathan set the ball down between the bleachers and sat sideways a row down from Peyton, his legs straddling the bench. "Okay, hit me because you know I hate cryptic crap and beating around the bush."

Peyton licked her lips, "Alright, so Lucas proposed and I said yes. And this is what I've wanted since I came back at Tree Hill, you know that. _Everyone_ knows that. But I need to know that I'm doing the right thing. I want it so badly, Nate, but Luke and I...we have a history of bad decisions,"

"You have a history of more than that. I mean, yeah, you're both frustrating as hell sometimes and you break up and argue about the dumbest crap but the other side of it's like, you know, this big meant-to-be love story." Nathan frowned for a moment, "I mean between all the bad decisions there was him stalking the hell out of you since he was like six years old or something creepy like that. Him pulling you out of a school shooting. And that weird thing you guys do where don't even _talk_ sometimes but it's like you can read each other's minds or something – which by the way, is also creepy. And you destroying the rivercourt recently – not cool – with the some kind of love letter,"

Narrowing her eyes, Peyton reached over and kicked him, "Dude, that was _The Cure_."

"Whatever. You put graffiti all over his favourite place in the world and he took you on vacation, to _Vegas._ He wasn't so happy when _I _did that." Nathan pointed out.

She chuckled, remembering Nathan's destruction of the rivercourt after Lucas first joined the team in their junior year. "You were such a little punk, you know that?"

"Yeah, yeah. You know you're the only person who gets away with calling me that?"

"How so?" Peyton asked, leaning back to lie down on the bench.

Nathan grinned but she couldn't see it, "Because you were dating me. Technically that makes you look stupider than me."

"Not possible." She shot back. "And don't deny it. You used to wear that dumb letterman jacket _everywhere_."

"Huh," Nathan arched his brow, "I don't seem to recall you complaining about that dumb jacket when you wore it home from the beach house."

Peyton gasped, "That's because someone had stolen my clothes and thrown them in the ocean! All I had to wear home was that stupid jacket and your boxer shorts."

"That's what I told you." Nathan revealed, "I had a whole wardrobe of clothes, I just wanted to see you in that jacket."

"You were _such _a punk." Peyton reiterates with a short roll of her eyes. "But can we get back to me now? Only I'm having a crisis and stupidly I'm asking for your help which I can see may have been a mistake."

Nathan arched his brow, "You know when most girls get engaged they don't call it a crisis."

"Yeah, well, most girls don't have the twisted history of something Brooke calls _Leyton_." Peyton said in a slow voice, her fingers dancing in the air softly.

Watching curiously, Nathan bobbed his head, "I get it. I do. Luke's a douchebag who loves whoever is nearest to him at the time. Example – Lindsey."

Peyton pouted, "That's a comforting thought about my fiancé."

"I only promised you honesty, I didn't say I'd be nice." Nathan said. "And you're worried that you're running into marriage even though we all expected Luke to propose after he first said _hello_ to you in high school."

"Huh, and it turned out that was _you_ who proposed immediately after meeting Haley." Peyton smirked.

Nathan scoffed, "Shut up."

"You know I still find that the weirdest thing of all." Peyton remarked lightly, "I mean you seemed allergic to commitment when we were dating and then you _married _Haley."

Shuffling a little uncomfortably on the bench, Nathan rolled his shoulders, "That wasn't anything personal, I look back and still can't believe we did that. It was just this idea that seemed so crazy that it was brilliant, you know? And it kind of was brilliant, except for the fact that neither of us were probably ready. You do dumb stuff when you love someone though, right?"

Peyton laughed, "Yes, I have the evidence to prove that."

"You're scared, Sawyer." Nathan noted, "And don't bother denying it, you can admit it to me. We're the honest ones, right?"

Peyton sighed, "I'm starting to think I liked you better as a punk."

"You can't wish it back now." Nathan said.

"I know." Peyton nodded. "Now tell me I'm doing the right thing and it's all going to work out fabulously."

Nathan laughed, "You want the truth or what?"

"I want something beautiful. I want True Love Always and eternal happiness. I want what everyone else in this crummy world wants." Peyton turned herself upright again and locked eyes with Nathan, "Okay, hit me with the truth, quickly."

"You're going to have all that, you know." Nathan shrugged easily. "You and Lucas is the only thing that's ever made sense. I knew that you two would end up together even before I knew me and Hales would and I decided that pretty damn quickly."

Peyton smiled, "That had better not be a load of BS."

Nathan held up his hands, "I may have been a little punk but I have _never_ been a bullshitter."

"Point taken." Peyton smiled wider. "And I'm glad you said that, because I'm really, really happy."

"Finally." Nathan play punched her on the arm, "You've been miserable for too long."

"You have a way with words." Peyton sighed and lifted herself from the bleacher. "But thanks, Nate, really. I think, somehow, I had to hear it from you."

Nathan nodded and stood to hug her, "You're going to _love _marriage by the way."

"That good?" Peyton asked.

"There's a pact that married people take; we tell everyone that married sex is dull but really it's better. Dirty as hell." Nathan smirked.

She laughed back at him, "Well now you've really sold it to me."

Peyton moved in for another tight hug and then turned to go. Nathan called out to her when she reached the door.

"Yeah?" She blinked back at him.

"You're not the only one I've made promises to." Nathan said, "I promised Luke that if he ever hurt you again, well, he'd regret it."

Peyton's eyes softened as she gazed back at the boy she'd always been able to rely on, "I'm glad I've got you watching my back, Nate. It means a lot."

He shrugged, "I love you, Sawyer."

She smiled one of her rarest sparkling smiles, "Yeah, I love you too, Nathan."


End file.
